The Necessity
by darthmae
Summary: Universe Alteration. Most of the Freelancers survive, and wind up far away from the main storyline. Minimal changes from canon, other than them not being dead.
1. Chapter 1 - Missed Meetings

**Chapter 1**

It was days like this that made York miss Carolina. The captain was late for the daily meeting for the third time that week, and no one knew why. Well, the doctors did, but they weren't talking. He had half-jokingly suggested to Florida that they force the information out of someone, but 4-7-niner had overheard them and put an end to that. Carolina would have figured out how to get the information, most likely without force. Carolina would have them out in public; making a statement and making sure all the remnants of Project Freelancer were destroyed. It wasn't like they didn't have the capability; the Captain had just insisted that her ship become a safe haven instead. Larger than the Mother of Invention, or any other ship York had heard of, the good ship Necessity was indeed a sight to behold. Obviously alien in origin, it was unlike anything found during the Great War or the following years. It had taken York's breath away when he first saw it only a few months ago, and while he didn't think it was being used to its full potential, it had yet to cease to both surprise and impress him.

North was discussing the needed repairs to the hangar bays with the pilots and repairmen when Captain Cooper strode into the room. He immediately stood, relinquishing her chair. She waved him off.

"I need you to finish out this meeting. When it's over, send the head pilots and all freelancers to my ready room." There was silence for a beat.

"What?" It was York.

"Her ready room?" "A private meeting?" "She has a what room?" "What's going on?" came the sudden explosion of questions from the gathered people and A.I.

"Those of you whom North gathers will find out this morning. The rest of you will have to wait until the lunchtime announcements. Keep your ears peeled. I have to go," declared the Captain, turning to leave the room.

"Beth..." questioned North, both perplexed and concerned, "is everything OK?"

"Will be," was her only response.

Half an hour later, after a hurried conclusion to the daily meeting, and some directions from F.I.L.S.S.(read: Phyllis), the head pilots and freelancers gathered in the Captain's previously unmentioned 'Ready Room'. To their surprise, it was bright and humming with machinery. Three fourths of the walls were covered in displays, the other quarter was a viewport. There was a hologram table in the middle of the room – round, smooth, and much larger than the one on _Mother of Invention_. A dozen chairs sat around it.

"Have a seat!" called the captain from her position by one of the large screens placed symmetrically around the room. The Freelancers: Agents North, York, Florida, and Connecticut (aka CT), took one side. The head pilots of the transport (4-7-niner and 2-5-sic) and fighter crews (Harriet, Todd, and Skip) took the other.

The captain finished issuing orders to an AI computer - not the usual one, F.I.L.S.S.; but an unknown one, Ravyen. Then she and Jacksie, the captain's personal A.I., called the start of the meeting.

The Captain, a 20-something of middling height, had her hair cut military short and was dressed in her usual loose T-shirt and jeans. Jacksie's hologram was human-sized, something York hadn't seen before. Normally A.I. holograms were small enough to sit on your shoulder. He had yet to really figure out where Jacksie had come from - all he knew was that she was part of something Project Freelancer had gotten hold of, and the captain had been a Freelancer hopeful until that same something, the Phoenix suit, had caused her to leave.

"Alright," called Captain Cooper, "I'm sure you're all wondering what in the world is going on. Allow me to start from the beginning.

"As you know, I was a recruit of Project Freelancer's in the early days. I was close to achieving the rank of Freelancer, destined to be designated Agent Ohio. In a series of experiments with our researchers, we discovered something that would change that," she said, waving a picture onto one of the screens hanging on the walls. A familiar but alien-looking suit of charcoal and ash appeared.

"The Phoenix suit. An ancient alien artifact dug up a few months before the Great War. We had no idea what it did, but when the war started Project Freelancer was granted research rights. When the scientists couldn't open or activate it, they requested a fighter to put in it, as some previously discovered alien tech was designed to only be worn by someone who was 'worthy'. I, along with many other freelancer hopefuls, volunteered to put it on. I was selected by the scientists because... I was the right size to fit in it."

Another slide popped up, detailing an x-ray of Captain Cooper's upper chest, shoulders, neck, and head. A small orange blip pulsed at the base of her skull.

"Putting it on a warrior activated it, all right. They put the suit on me, and it took a little under 10 seconds for the suit to fire up. It was old, and not calibrated for humans, so it didn't fit right; neither the sounds I heard nor the writing I saw meant anything to me. The suit took a DNA sample from me, injected me with a chip, and started hacking all local databases, trying to figure out where it was and who had it. Then, half an hour later, it shut back down. We couldn't get anything more out of it for the rest of the day.

"But boy, did I dream that night. The race who had created it had left the suit for future races as a way of preserving their history. The first night was background on the creators of the suit, the Naphtali. History and culture. It was an intense cranial download, very painful. Most of the following morning was spent by the doctors trying to figure out what was on the chip the suit had injected in me, and how it was communicating to my brain and the ship. By mid-afternoon, the doctors decided I couldn't take much more that day, told me to go back to my room, and get some rest. I didn't. I figured if I wasn't thinking as much, my brain could process the information more easily. I did some warm-ups in the training rooms, went a couple rounds with Agent Utah, and then went to bed. And I got more downloads."

At this point, she paced, slightly agitated. "This time, the suit spoke to me of the invaders, their destroyers; the Covenant Elite, ironically enough. Back then, the Covenant Elite were much less civilized, and much, much stronger. Funny what 20,000 years of civilian life will do to a race. Unfortunately, at the time, it meant the destruction of the Naphtali. That night, the suit showed me the strategies used by both sides, as well as a battle-by-battle tour of the war. It was a terrible war. A great many planets were wiped off the map. When I made my way to the research center the next day, they decided to put me back in the suit. Upon donning it, I realized it had translated everything to English Standard. This was very exciting to the researchers, but every time they tried to record inside the helmet, it would go black. They gave up on that and started just having me describe it. All. Day."

Another wave of the hand, and video of her in the suit showed up on screen. "That night, I didn't dream. At all. The next day, the scientists decided to give it a short field test. This involved me walking, running, and testing the flexibility of the suit. They decided to put it through a short round of hand-to-hand after lunch. Agent Florida helped us out with that. At first, the suit responded slowly, making any movement hard, but as the day progressed, it seemed to anticipate my movements, making the hand-to-hand very easy. The Counselor decided we were pushing it too hard, and by mid-afternoon, we were done for the day. I chose to head back to the training room. But something had changed."

She gestured to the table. "Those of you with A.I. already know what it's like to have another person in your head. I didn't. At first I thought it was memories of the Naphtalian fighting styles coming more easily to mind; but after the second round, I realized it was too specific, too pertinent to what I was doing. I decided the discovery could wait until the next day, and continued with my evening. That night, I dreamed again, but it wasn't like the other dreams, where everything was third person. This was first person. A little ways into the dream, I realized that not only did I know I was dreaming, I was in control of myself. This was Jacksie, introducing herself from the chip the suit had implanted in me."

This time, it was Jacksie who waved at the screen. "I walked her through more specific parts of my history - the AI research I was designed for, successes and failures at reproducing AI without new coding; as well as the suit's - various wars, the horrendous acts it had been used for, and the types of people that had used both myself and the suit. Later, the suit and I came into the possession of what you humans would consider extraterrestrial monks, and they melded us into a new, hopefully better unit, and preserved it where humanity eventually found it. That night, I tried to impress upon Beth how badly I didn't want to fall into the wrong hands. She didn't grasp most of what I was saying that night, being disoriented by the dreamscape, so we eventually decided we would call it a night and try talking about it during the day, when she would be more grounded and aware."

Beth nodded to Jacksie and retook the floor. "The next morning, I requested a day off. The scientists decided they had plenty of information to go through, and granted my request. I spent the morning training, still intently working towards earning my Freelancer status. After lunch, I went to my room and waited. It took a little while to figure out how to communicate with Jacksie when I was awake. She was distinctly female, but didn't have a name. After initiating contact and getting a steady grip on communicating with each other, I started going through the female names that I knew. Jacksie was my little sister's name, and for some reason, she liked it.

"As you may recall, one of the first things the suit did was try and figure out where it was and who had it. The IT department didn't think the suit had traveled very far, but they were wrong. For one, it was Jacksie doing the hacking, not the suit. And she had managed to get every scrap of information stored on the _Mother of Invention_. She didn't like what she had found. Even back then, the Director was planning on getting his hands on what you all know as the Sarcophagus."

A picture of the familiar artifact appeared onscreen. "It wasn't something the insurgents had made, as was the official story, but was instead another artifact from the same time period as Jacksie. It wasn't something she had been aware of, but from what she could tell, it was designed to heal broken minds by taking away that which was broken. But that wasn't how the Director was planning on using it. He wanted to use it to splinter the Alpha A.I., over and over and over again, and make the A.I. fragments that you Freelancers would come to use. This would drive the Alpha insane. Over the course of the afternoon, she showed me enough evidence to convince me of this several times over. By nighttime, we realized we would have to do something. But neither of us knew what. Her information-gathering and logic routines were mostly intact, but none of her creative or strategic routines had awoken yet. She knew that she was missing large parts of herself, and had no idea how to get them back."

The large screens went blank, drawing attention back to the Captain. "So the next day, when I went back to the labs, I started lying. Not wanting them to know what was really going on, I made it look like the suit was recharging, that we weren't going to get any use out of it that day. So instead I spent the day making up answers to questions. This was the sixth day since the suit had chosen me. After dinner, I didn't go to the training rooms, nor to the poker game that was being held. I went to my quarters and filled Jacksie in on the day's events, and we decided that the sooner we got out, the better. Jacksie had spent the day prepping the suit for exposure to space, and was confident that we would be able to get away from the _Mother of Invention_. Where we would go from there, though, neither of us knew. We decided to wait until early morning to make a move, and I went to sleep, letting Jacksie pick my brain for escape possibilities via the dreamscape. By 0230, we had a route of escape. We would stow away on the first outbound ship, take it to Mars, and hide out while she tried to put herself together."

The screens lit back up, one showing a Pelican ship, another screen the route from _Mother of Invention_ to Mars. "Amazingly enough, that plan worked. I had worked with the pilot, 4-7-niner, before and she owed me a favour. Since she was making a quick supply trip, I asked if I could tag along, to get away from the press of people on the _Mother of Invention_ for a couple of hours. She agreed, stating that it would be nice to have the company on a lonely supply run. I knew the hard part would be getting her most of the way back to _Mother of Invention_ before she realized I was missing."

There was laughter from the gathered pilots, who knew how hard it was to slip anything past 4-7-niner. She had earned her place as Head Fighter Pilot since her days as a transport pilot.

The captain continued. "Thankfully, she got into a heated argument with the dock manager about the speed her ship was being tended to. When she gets upset about how her ship is being treated, she tends to be rather single-minded."

This brought more chuckles from the crowd, including from 4-7-niner.

"In conversations over the last couple years since we met back up, I found out she hadn't realized I was gone until several hours later, when a public announcement was made, asking for my location."

"To be fair, you didn't really talk much on the way out; I just figured you were being quiet," 4-7-niner interjected.

"It would be an easy mistake to make," agreed Florida, bringing murmurs of agreement from the freelancers.

"Actually, it's almost easy to forget that you've missed several council meetings lately," commented York. "When are we going to get to that?"

"Be nice," soothed North, "None of us really know what's going on."

"Yeah, and I'm tired of it," shot York.

Captain Cooper cleared her throat. "York, I'm getting there. I have a lot of information to get through if this is all going to make sense. Do you want to know everything or don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. So hurry up," he snapped.

She sighed and nodded to Jacksie, who took the floor again, this time with more confidence.

"Over the next year, Beth and I were on the run. When we felt it was safe to stay in one place for a little while, I would go into a sort of hibernation, trying to piece myself together. After the first six months of having to split my attention between running and rebuilding, I picked up a beacon from a now-familiar ship, the _Necessity_." She waved to the screens. A picture of the _Necessity_ appeared on one and the previous location of the ship on the next. "It took us another six months to get there; we were still hiding from the military, and it was out in unknown space. We ended up settling for taking a ship to the nearest planet, Chorus. Our next challenge was getting from Chorus to the ship." With another signal to the computer, a third screen lit up with a schematic of Chorus, and a fourth with the relative locations of the planet and the _Necessity_.

At this point, the Captain stepped forward again. "Jacksie went back into hibernation, and I went about finding a job at a local shipyard. I had helped 4-7-niner with repairs on her ship before, and soon had work. I traded work for an old ship, and then all the parts to make it work again. Five months later, when it was flyable, I woke Jacksie.

"We knew it was time to leave civilization behind and head that way. We filed a flight plan, letting Chorus Federal know we were taking the old ship for a test flight. We didn't want to be tracked so we acquired some explosives, fixed up an old jetpack, and rewired the on-board computer to take over once we had left the atmosphere. When we hit the detonation button, it did just enough damage to open the hull and make the ship crash. We escaped in the suit via the newly opened hole in the hull and went on our way.

"You know most of the rest of the story. We spent six months getting the ship's life support and other systems back to operating well enough that I didn't need the suit full time, and then another year getting the ship mobile. We had no idea what we were doing and no spare parts, but we managed.

"At that point, two years after I left the Project, we decided to check on the outside world. Upon getting communications online, we learned of the Freelancers who were rebelling. CT" the Captain nodded in the Freelancer's direction "was the first to go AWOL and join the insurgents, as you know. By the time I had gotten one of the smaller transport ships up and running, it was almost too late. It took me over a month to get to her, and when I found her, she was dying. I convinced the leader of the insurgents to let me take her with me, and had her back to the _Necessity_ in only a few days. We had gotten some of the medical facilities online, and miraculously, it was enough. She spent the first two months in the hospital wing, and pulled through.

"Having her and the information in her possession changed everything. The situation had gotten more out of hand than I had feared. The Director had been making sure that if he fell, no one in the Project could go home. Within two weeks of her arrival, she and I were monitoring all Project Freelancer communications and preparing to come to the rescue of everyone and anyone we could. The pilot, repair, and medical crews were our first targets, as we assumed the others could take care of themselves. As Project Freelancer started getting investigated by the military's oversight committee, we knew it was a good time for folks to start disappearing. Some of them did so themselves, others we helped out. Within a month we had over a hundred crewmen living in uncharted territory on the surface of Chorus. With their help, we were able to send out teams to rescue the rest. CT headed up these operations, leaving myself and Jacksie to start integrating our new – and old – friends onto our ship.

"Towards the end of the fourth month, we started gathering Freelancers and A.I. Which brings us to a time frame familiar to all of you. Over the last year and a half, we've healed wounds, fixed relationships, learned more about ourselves, and become a community. When we finished gathering as many of ourselves as we could, there was still much that no one understood about our ship or my suit. Jacksie was, and is, still missing parts of herself. They are hidden somewhere in my suit, in parts hidden by age and dust. With the help of all of you, we have learned how to fly the _Necessity_, make use of almost all her rooms, power up her weapons, use her medical facilities, and fly all the cargo, transport, and fighter ships that she holds. On a more personal note, I've learned how to fight and fly in the suit, with some success. But the functions of the suit don't stop at fighting and flying; it also heals, reads my thoughts via the chip, and, as of the last couple months, _changes my DNA_. Which brings us to the subject of my missed council meetings. Questions?"

There was a disquieting silence in the room.


	2. Chapter 2 - No More Secrets

"That's bullshit," declared York. "We've never created that kind of tech or found aliens that have it."

"Though," mused North, "it would explain a lot. You've been... different."

"Yes," said the Captain, sighing. "The last couple months my eyesight and hearing have been improving and changing. Different colours stand out to me, different sounds turn my head. And I've noticed new colours and sounds that I've never seen or heard before."

"Again I say, bullshit," announced York. "I don't believe you, and you can't make me."

Skip grunted in what seemed like agreement.

"Why not?" interjected 4-7-niner. "She doesn't really have a reason to lie about it. And it makes sense to me."

"I don't know," Todd said, hesitantly. "I'd like a little more proof."

"And you'll get it," the Captain declared. "The team of doctors and scientists that have been foremost in researching the suit and what it's doing to me are on their way here. I would like you all to take a minute to process what you've heard before they show up. Feel free to get up, ask questions, and move around."

"Whatever," grumbled York, as he pulled out his lighter and began flicking it on and off.

North, Florida, and the pilots all stood up, stretching after having sat in the strangely shaped chairs for so long. 4-7-niner pulled the pilots into a corner of the room, and they began talking in hushed tones. CT sat back in her chair, pondering. North and Florida both started towards the captain, but upon realizing each other's intention, North decided to hang back and wait.

"Beth," chided Florida, "how many times must I tell you not to keep this sort of thing from the crew?"

"It just seemed so impossible. And I have several dozen people in the know, which feels like a lot after the time I spent here alone." It was a lame excuse, and judging by the look on the Captain's face, Florida guessed she knew that.

"Well, dear, no more secrets; at least not from the freelancers. We all got hurt by people hiding these kinds of things. A.I.s affecting them covertly and whatnot."

She winced a little. "North, CT, and 4-7-niner have been aware of the situation since week one. Not well informed, but aware."

"Well, I'm glad you've been trusting some of us, and even happier you're letting the rest of us in on it!" he declared. "And I look forward to getting to see your suit in action."

Beth smiled. "John Bertrand from the ground troops has claimed first fight. He's pretty excited."

It was Florida's turn to smile. "That does sound like him! Well, pleased as punch to know things are going well. I'll be around if you ever need an extra hand or two!"

"Thank you, Flowers," she said, using his given name in an attempt to let him know she was serious. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Anytime."

When he had gotten a reasonable distance away, North was at her side, giving her a disapproving look. "I hadn't realized how much I didn't know."

Beth opened her mouth to speak, but Theta chose that moment to make an entrance. When the A.I.'s little ball of holographic fireworks appeared, North couldn't help but smile. However, when the fireworks dissipated and Theta's pink and purple holographic armour appeared, the down-turned head and shifting feet turned the smile into a look of concern.

"Theta," said North, "what's wrong?" Behind him, Beth mirrored his look of concern, and Jacksie appeared at Theta's side, ready to assist the A.I. fragment she had befriended.

"Eta, Iota, I have been listening." confessed the timid A.I. "I knew it was wrong, but North has been so worried about you, I needed to know what was going on."

"Theta, you could have just asked. We'd have let you come listen in," Beth pointed out.

"Yes," agreed Jacksie. "I've actually been preparing a download for all the A.I."

"Oh." The sound Theta made was barely audible.

The A.I. twins, Eta and Iota, chose that moment to make their appearance.

"We think the Captain made the right choice in not keeping everyone informed. This sounds rather a lot like the experiments the Director ran on the freelancers. There's a good chance it would have caused some... unrest," mused Eta, his green, bubble-like hologram standing next to his sister's yellow one.

"Thank you, Eta, but for now, maybe you and your sister should join your commander. She seems rather confused to see you here." Beth indicated to 4-7-niner, who had broken away from her pilots when her AIs holograms appeared. "She's probably wondering why you two aren't on your ships."

"Of course," said Eta. He and Iota trailed off to meet their commander.

North sighed. "York isn't gonna be happy that he was left out of this."

"York hasn't been happy since I decided it would be too risky to go after Carolina," Beth pointed out.

"That decision wasn't just yours. Everyone was involved in it. Besides, we don't actually know she's alive."

"Yeah, but I'm the one he blames," said Beth, sighing.

Head doctor Marie Tucker and lead scientist Jake Reynolds chose that moment to enter the room and work their way towards Beth. She sighed again.

"Looks like you and I are gonna have to talk later, North. Sorry."

"I'm counting on it," he replied, sternly. "Come on, Theta, let's go join the others."

Nearly two hours later, the scientists finished their presentation and started answering questions. The pilots asked to be dismissed, and were granted permission. Eventually, York followed suit.

"Well, then," said Dr. Tucker. "The next issue is the public announcement you promised to make."

"Yeah..." Beth sighed. "Still not sure what that's going to entail. It does, however, look like we're going to need representatives to fill my position over the next several months, since we still don't know what all of these changes will do to my psyche. I'm thinking we have North, 4-7-niner, Harriet, and Blake from the worker's union do that."

"We will still have to put it to a vote, though," North pointed out.

"That's true... I guess that'll be the first order of new business at the next town hall meeting. We should mention the vote in today's announcement so people know about it. Reynolds, what's the best way to phrase what's happening to me so as to not cause panic?"

"Why are you asking me? I don't do those sort of things. It's why I work with scientists and not PR," he said. "Try asking North, he always seems to have a way with words."

Everyone looked at North expectantly.

"Well..." he hesitated.

" 'Due to the original purpose of the suit, preserving the history of the Naphtali, our Captain is experiencing some genetic and physical changes. As such, we will be forming a council to assist in, and then temporarily take over, her duties aboard the ship. At this time, it is unknown just how much change is in store for her, how much it will effect her in the long run, or how long these changes will take. A vote will be held at the town hall meeting on Saturday, three days from now, to determine who will comprise this council. Nominations will be open from the time of this announcement until the time of the vote, which will be the first order of new business.' " Everyone looked at Florida with surprise. "What?" he asked. "I spent a lot of time with the Counselor."

Three days came and went in a whirlwind, which meant North never got a chance to talk to the Captain. Nominations started pouring in about two hours after the announcement was made, and it was all Beth and Jacksie could do to keep them organized. There were also constant requests for confirmation of the vote and the circumstances leading up to it from everyone who had not been in the ready room or involved in the Captain's care. She ended up releasing a short brief covering the information her doctors had shared at the original reveal, to be available upon request. When Saturday came, everyone who called the ship home gathered in the auditorium used to hold large meetings. It was standing room only several minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start.

"Alright, let's call this meeting to order," announced the Captain. "We have a lot to get through, so let's do this right the first time. First order of old business, training rooms. We still seem to be having issues with various factions of ground troops not letting non-troopers come in to get their exercise. At this point, I'm rather tempted to restrict all troopers to ten training rooms and let the other fifteen be for public use. However, I'm certain we will all come to an understanding on the matter and that such regulations will be unnecessary. Shall we begin?"


	3. Chapter 3 - The Council

Chapter 3 - The Council - pg 11

Two hours later, trash duty being assigned for the month signaled the end of old business. Another couple dozen or so people trickled in, and the crowd quieted.

"Now that that's over with, we can begin new business," declared the Captain. "First on the list, nominations and voting concerning the new council to be organized in preparation for my upcoming absence. At this point, nominations will no longer be accepted. Thanks to several dozen volunteers, we have 150 voting stations set up in the hall joining this auditorium and the dance floor. You will be ushered by the aforementioned volunteers to the voting stations and then onto the dance floor, where you will find seating and refreshments, provided by the kitchen staff. Each voting station has a list of the 235 nominations, accompanied by the position they have been nominated for. We are looking for representatives for each of the five divisions. You have one vote, and can use it to vote on the representative of your division. Votes will be counted by the Eta AI. If there are close ties at the end of the first round, you will all be called back here, the voting tables will be reset to reflect said near ties, and voting will begin again. We will repeat this as many times as necessary. Doors will be opening momentarily to accept the first group of voters. Thank you." She turned from the podium and sat in one of the six chairs arranged in a line on the stage.

Nearly 2 ½ hours later, the first round of voting was finished, and the 3500 inhabitants of the _Necessity_ filed back into their seats. It had been almost five hours since the meeting had been called to order, and it was showing on everyone's faces. Eta appeared on stage to present the results to the Captain. After a short review, she resumed her position behind the podium.

"Thank you, everyone, for your patience and cooperation. Greatly appreciate it. We have results, and it looks like we'll be done in time for dinner," announced the Captain. Murmurs of relief washed through the crowd. "As a matter of fact, there are no contests. We have our five council members."

Applause spattered around the room.

"I will read the position and name of each person. If you accept your nomination to this council, you will approach the stage. First, representing the worker's union, Jack Blake. Do you accept?"

Applause roared through the room this time as Blake stood and began walking towards the stage.

"Representing the pilot squadrons, 4-7-niner. Do you accept?"

More applause, this time more centralized around the section of the room 4-7-niner made her approach from.

"Representing the science division, Harvey Tucker, PhD. Do you accept?"

Polite applause from the section he had occupied accompanied him in his journey to the stage.

"Representing General Population, Leah Crane. Do you accept?"

A much more widespread applause followed her as she ascended the steps to the stage.

"Representing the Freelancers and Ground Troops, Freelancer New York. Do you accept?"

Murmurs of surprise from the science and pilot sections mixed with overly enthusiastic cheers and applause from the others as York detached himself from the other freelancers to make his way to the stage.

"Excellent. Eta, read the terms of the council."

"Of course, Captain," he replied. "Terms and regulations as they apply to the Captain's Council. This Council shall be formed for a period of six months starting a week from today, at which point it may be renewed if the Captain's primary care physician and at least three members of this Council deem it necessary. This Council may, at any time, defer to the Captain's past decisions as a final ruling in a case. This Council may overturn one of the Captain's previous rulings if all members are in agreement. This Council can ask for a vote on any subject. Any of this Council's decisions can be overturned if at least 65% of the population deems it necessary, at which point a new case will be filed and due process will start over. If this happens a total of five times, new nominations will be gathered for the entire council and voting will begin again. No person on this Council can put claim to the title 'Captain' at any point. In the case of the Captain's death, she has already named a successor. This Council does not hold the ability to access the Captain's private Ready Room for any reason."

"Thank you, Eta," said the Captain. "Are there any complaints at this point in time?"

There was silence on the stage.

"Excellent. That's that, then. Over the next week, you five will work closely together addressing any situations that arise, and I will be there to advise and finalize any rulings until next Saturday at 0800. At that point, I will turn legislative powers over to you. Sound good?"

All five Council members nodded.

"Then I name you the Legislative Council of the Necessity. Thank you. If you will take a seat here on stage, the six of us will now address any further orders of new business."

"I still can't believe York got a seat on the Council," CT commented for the fourth time.

"Is it so hard to believe?" asked Florida. "He is pretty popular. I hear he had a landslide vote."

"The crews do seem to rather like him," agreed North. "I guess it's his natural charm."

"I'm not sure I like it," Theta mumbled. "He's been trying for almost two years to get us back into fighting."

"To be honest, that's probably why he got the spot. I've only ever managed to avoid it by threatening to refuse shelter to anyone who goes on the offensive," admitted the Captain, coming up behind them.

"Well, at least he can't go around calling himself the captain," said Florida, amicably.

"Yeah..." Beth sighed. "I wanted to nip that in the bud."

"There he is!" said North. "How do you do, Councilman? Got away from your adoring fans, eh?"

York laughed. "I'm still reeling from the fact that I got the seat," he confessed.

"Several people seem to be, but not as many as you'd think, York" the Captain said with a smile. "I, for one, look forward to working with you over the next week."

"Thank you, Captain," he said, "Though I was wondering who it is you chose to succeed you in case of your death?"

She laughed. "Wouldn't you just love to know." A device in her pocket beeped at her. She groaned. "My doctors want to monitor me again. I was hoping they'd give me some more time away from the hospital wing. Gets stuffy in there." She suddenly seemed very tired. "Sorry guys, but it looks like I have to go. I'll see you first thing in the morning, York. Sundays at 0500 are the weekly hull checks."

"At 0500?! That's crazy!" cried York.

"Welcome to life at the top!" she cried as she walked away. North excused himself and followed her.

"Were you planning on celebrating your new position tonight, York?" asked 4-7-niner, approaching the group.

"Yeah, actually. Who do I talk to in order to push the time for tomorrow's hull check back?" he asked.

"Me," she said firmly. "And no way in hell."


End file.
